Food Network Challenge: Last Cake Standing
March 17, 2009 at 8:16 am 15 comments
The special four-week stunt “Food Network Challenge: Last Cake Standing” premieres April 5th at 8pm ET/PT.
NEW YORK – March 5, 2009 – Since 2005, Food Network Challenge has captivated viewers with exciting food battles from around the country. Now in it’s first-ever elimination-style competition, Food Network Challenge: Last Cake Standing, six Challenge all-stars vie for the title of “Best Cake Artist in America.” Premiering Sunday, April 5th at 8pm ET/PT, the series throws the pastry chefs into a grueling four-round cake competition. The Challenge alumni will be thrown a number of difficult tasks, from creating one-of-a-kind wedding creations to undergoing a 24-hour cake-making marathon. Each week the judges eliminate one cake artist, and the winner takes home the biggest prize in Challenge history: $50,000! Challenge emcee Keegan Gerhard serves as host and notable pastry chef Patrick Coston and famed cake designer Kerry Vincent lead the judging panel.
Entry filed under: Food on Film. Tags: ace of cakes, beer fest, beerfest, Best Cake Artist in America, bleeding heart bakery, blind date cake, Bob Tuschman, Bronwen Weber, cake, cakes, charm city, charm city cakes, chef duff, Courtney Clark, courtney clark cake, duff, Elisa Strauss, Food Network Challenge, James Rosselle, Last Cake Standing, Last Cake Standing primeres, Mary Maher, mary maher cakes, Michelle Bommarito, take the cake, the cake, we take the cake.
Wannabe TV Chef 
1.
K | April 2, 2009 at 11:54 pm
Gee… SPOILER ALERT! Why don’t you just go ahead and tell who won each episode’s challenge now that everyone knows all the twists!
2.
wannabetvchef | April 3, 2009 at 9:16 am
K,
Not me, the Food Network put this press release out. There was no need for a spoiler alert since Food Network released this information on March 5th (a month before they were to air the episodes) and months after the actual contests happened. I do not think they actually intended for the outcomes to remain a mystery since they were already part of history. I guess they think that viewers do not watch for the drama but rather because they want to watch talented people cook.
However, there are some culinary contests out there that have little to do with actual cooking and are just about drama: Top Chef, Hell’s Kitchen, and the Chopping Block come to mind. Even Food Network has a cooking contest that isn’t about cooking just drama, Next Food Network Star, but they do not even protect the outcome on that show.
3.
fan_n_tx | April 8, 2009 at 7:21 pm
I missed the ending, who got voted off and who won immunity in the first round?
4.
Mary Haines | April 10, 2009 at 6:16 pm
I just finished watching the Last Cake Standing episode where contestants were to vote another off. I find this to be extremely cruel and needless to say, I won’t watch the cake challenges again.
5.
cyndy | April 12, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Michelle Bomarito needed to go what a crappy cake and simple, considering the competitors she was up against.
6.
Linda Clark | April 17, 2009 at 11:17 pm
My daughter competed on this challenge and believe me, all the contestants hated being the ones to vote someone off. To let you know the kind of people they are – each one offered to leave the show rather than vote someone else off. That was edited out.
7.
pamela hernandez | April 19, 2009 at 8:25 pm
i just watched the latest episode of last cake standing. (April 19,2009.) I do not agree with the judges tonight. For one if they would of taken a really good look at the cake they chose they would have realized that the green fighting princess was rotating backwards and that one of the main elements that Mary wanted to put in her hand was not even there so to me the cake was not finished and that both women did not even really work together. On the other hand the other team worked and helped each other the whole time and made a whole new cake design. Plus their action hero actually did rotate the rite way and I think the design of the cake had a better reality to it. I think the judges where very WRONG and they should change their minds or at least apologize on TV.
8.
Joe Blow | April 22, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Courtney Clark is a cutie.
9.
Breyer | April 26, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Courtney got ripped off! Her cake was by far the best. Mary’s was a mess in comparison. Why are the judges on Foodnetwork such idiots? They punish quality and award mediocrity.
10.
Jerilyn Almes | April 27, 2009 at 11:29 am
Hey
I was woundering about the last cake standing when will the last of the 4 weeks be on again? Is the last show of a cake for a girl turning 16?I erased the last show
Thank you
Jerilyn Almes
11.
dallas viewer | April 27, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Last Cake Standing was an interesting “experiment” in reality-tv-style cakesmanship.
Let’s NOT have LCS 2, okay? Because, really, this one kind of failed.
Random points:
1. Agreed how amateur and Survivor-ish the vote-off was. Apparently, our nasty emails to FN paid off, as this vote-off was a one-shot deal.
2. Mary’s body of work (used to pronounce her “the best Cake Artist in America,” a title I find rather presumptuous) was rather underwhelming, I thought. The wedding cake *totally* missed the mark with the couple. Her offering in the team challenge (superhero) had barely a scintilla of teamwork about it. It totally had nothing to do with the stated intention of the challenge (to show teamwork in combining ideas and coming up with something reflecting both competitors). I did like Mary’s first cake, though it wasn’t very cake-like to me and I thought Bronwyn got ripped off on that one. And Mary’s last cake was okay, but not enough for me to suggest that she or anyone who participated in LCS was “the best cake artist in America”.
3. The last challenge, which should have allowed us to really see some fabulous stuff, was set up to tire out the participants, none of whom was able to perform to a level that I would call “fabulous”. I love how there was “no twist”, but oh, BTW, the cake had to be ginormous and appeal to 6 different people.
FN seems to be trying mightily to jump onboard the survivor/project runway/top chef ship. Apparently, they feel that if they don’t show competitors exhausted from stupid challenges, crying, voting each other off, etc., we viewers won’t watch.
Perhaps FN is going after the tween and teen viewership?
12.
Terry | April 28, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Mary won fare her cake was was a nock out just like all of her work you cant get better than Mary and Brenda they work is wonderful and I am glad she won only other person to me that could have beat her would have been Mike from Mikes amazing cake other wise she won fare and square happy for her best decorator:)
13.
kim | April 29, 2009 at 7:11 pm
I think all the cakes where great.
But the real challege would be to make a cake without all the fondant.
Has anyone tasted that stuff..
Unless you make your own and add alot of flavor its not that great.
But like I said i would like to see them create a master piece without using it.
God has bless them with great talent.
14.
g528 | April 29, 2009 at 9:18 pm
I am not a fan of reality tv. But this challenge really got me. Until they did not have a final challenge in between the last two standing. They need different judges, Kerry or whatever make up her mind right off the bat. The “clients” do not have enough say so. I thought Mary’s last cake looked horrible. Courtney, who was not my favorite going in, should have won. Except she was so reptitious the whole “that’s what she said thing.” Browen and James were the best. Michell is irritating but I like her style. I hope they do another. I agree the title is preumptious. Two judges. I don’t think so.
15. Claudia garces | FirstQuantumRealty | March 16, 2011 at 5:34 pm
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